Updated:Man trying to help homeless man in Burien attacked by two men with machete and chainApril 19, 2018

Update: During the noon hour Thursday the King County Sheriff’s office released the following update to this story:

“A transient male was outside on SW 148 when the 2 intoxicated suspects approached him and for no reason pushed over his bike and belongings. A good samaritan in the area saw what occurred and tried to get the suspects to stop messing with the transient’s belongings.

The suspects turned on the good samaritan, one produced a machete and one had a belt like chain that they began brutally assaulting the victim with. At one point the transient tried to help but the suspects attempted to throw him into traffic driving by.

2 cooks at a nearby restaurant were able to chase down the suspect who had the machete and hold him to the ground until Police arrived. Police were able to arrest the 2nd suspect with the chain.

The victim a 39 year old male from Burien, was treated by Medics and transported to Harborview Hospital in critical condition.

End update

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KOMO-TV interviewed the man who was attacked, Ryan O'Dell, 39. He told the station his girlfriend at first had yelled at the two men to stop harassing the homeless man.

That is when the two confronted her and that’s when he got involved. He got into a fight with the two, knocked both of them down ,then they both came at him with those two weapons.

He said he stumbled backwards into some bushes and then ended up stuck in a barrel and could do nothing as the two hacked at him with the machete and hit him with a chain belt.

Eventually his friend, the homeless man came to his aid and drew their attention and that allowed him to get away, to run across the street until medics came. Then two workers at the nearby restaurant also came out and helped hold the suspects until police arrived.

He got lucky, O’Dell said. Lucky his attackers did not hit any arteries.

Original story below

(BURIEN, WA.) – Police say it was a brutal attack on a man who was just trying to do good and it left him with critical injuries.

The King County Sheriff’s office says two men, one 25 years old and the other 30, were arrested for allegedly attacking a man Wednesday in Burien with a machete and a chain after he came to the aid of a homeless man.

The incident happened near a restaurant on 1st Avenue SW in Burien near SW 148th Street.

A sheriff’s office spokesman said a 39-year-old Burien man came to the aid of a homeless man who was being harassed by the two men, and the men then turned on the Good Samaritan attacking him with a machete and chain.

The two suspects had come out of a restaurant and allegedly were hassling the homeless man by pushing over his bike and a cart that he used to carry around his belongings and when the Burien man tried to intervene to help, he was brutally attacked.

By the time police arrived the Good Samaritan had been rushed to Harborview Medical Center with critical injuries.

The two men were to be booked into the King County Jail on felony assault charges.